Mission: Fantastical

Rebuilding the Harpers

Raiders of the Lost Library

Session 1

23

NOV/13

The party was assembled by the head of the Tethyrian Institute of Arcane Arts to retrieve lost books and more specifically a tome of black magic from the ruins of a once-famous library. This party of mercenaries included the following: Frankie, a well-known rogue in those parts as a conspiracy theorist and publisher of The Rogue Informer; Scarfell, a Gnomish druid of an order of scribal monks based at the Abbey of Dun Helm in the far North, tasked with the recovery of Dun-Helmish books and with creating new and exciting opportunities for scholarly trade; and N-Gram, a sentient mechanical construct whose prime directive is the disposal of dangerous magical tome by any, but preferably flame-related, means necessary

The party traveled to Erlkazar, beyond the wild marches of Tethyr, where they encountered another adventurer who joined the party, one Evie, a silver-tongued bard with something to prove.

The approach to the ruined monastery grounds of Spirit Soaring was easy—almost too easy. After a short discussion with a toad in the monastery’s primary well (longer rather than shorter in the case of Scarfell), the party entered the main library building. Deftly avoiding the spontaneously exploding reference books littering the hall, the party found a trapped stairway down to the main stacks.

Frankie disarmed the trap while N-Gram less than helpfully tried to burn one of the more dangerous books which the party was sent to rescue. Little did our party know that they were being watched by a group of beady and greedy little eyes…

The eyes belonged to a group of Kobolds who were inhabiting the above-ground architecture of the library. They warned the party off from going downstairs and seemed ready to enforce that suggestion with might if necessary—or at least as much might as a Kobold can muster. Evie stepped boldly forth and fast-talked the Kobolds not only into showing the party a safer way into the library, but also into giving up their copy of an encyclopedia of dragons which they were venerating on their Dragon shrine; all this for only some vials of colored water and a polished mirror… ahem… a dragon scale, that is. The Kobolds offered one more warning: the denizens of the lower floors are vicious and hungry.

The party’s Kobold guide led them to a lightwell that ran two stories into the bowels of the underground stacks. The party decided to head straight for the lower floor, as it was a more likely place to find the ultimate goal of their quest, the security vault and its baleful contents. With a little bit of skullduggery on the part of Frankie, the windows were jimmied open and the party found a shabby guest room and a large chamber with stacks at disconcerting angles.

It became clear very quickly that the books in this area were not of the most savory sorts of magic and also that the party was not alone. While the rest of the party hid, Evie very stealthily stood right where the other inhabitants of the dungeon could see her. She was confronted by a tall, grim bearded figure that the whole party recognized… King Haedrak I of Tethyr, resumed dead for 500 years!

The king was accompanied by a number of soldiers and a black ooze. Midway through the battle the ooze ingested a book and turned into a dark wizard. It became clear to the party that the “king” was nothing more than an intelligent slime that had ingested one of the very books they were looking for. After valiantly flaming the whole mass of enemies, N-Gram was disabled. The rest of the party finished subduing the oozes and retreated to the guest room they had found to hunker down and rest up.